Santana took his turn at the podium on the field in a pre-game ceremony before the Braves-Phillies game to criticize the immigration bill just signed into law by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Friday.

“I represent the human race,” the Mexican-born Carlos Santana said. “The people of Arizona, the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

The Georgia immigration law, HB 87, cracks down on illegal immigration by increasing enforcement powers and requiring many employers to check the immigration status of new hires.

Ashamed? Really, Carlos? What is there in the law that we should be ashamed of it? Never mind that there are between 10 million and 15 million people living in the United States who have never been screened for disease, crimilar history or terrorism ties. Never mind that the law is similar to Arizona’s law, which merely requires state and local governments to do what the Federal government should already otherwise be doing. Never mind that it requires employers to use the Federal e-Verify system to ensure that employees are legal residents of the United States. Never mind that the law is innocuous in comparrison to Mexican immigration law. According to Carlos Santana, this is just a return to the 1960s race wars:

“It’s an anti-American law. It’s a cruel law, actually,” Santana said. “If you all remember what it was like here with Martin Luther King and the dogs and the hoses, it’s the same thing, only it’s high tech. So let’s change it.”

That’s right! Requiring employers to verify their employees are legal residents is just like releasing the dogs and fire hoses on Civil Rights activists! Requiring government offices to ask for ID before giving out welfare benefits is just an extension of Jim Crow! The only difference is it’s “high tech”! It’s just about RAAAAACISM!™

Oy.

Remember, this law simply requires that employers verify the people working for them are legally allowed to work in the United States and the state government verify the immigration status of suspicious persons and persons receiving welfare or other benefits. The Heritage Foundation notes that Mexican law has similar requirements:

Among the other findings of the Library of Congress, through its “enforcing arm, the National Institute of Migration –INAMI” (the equivalent of ICE here in the USA), the Mexican Police Force, may carry out the following:” (Chapter 10, Article 151)

Perform verification visits

Cause a foreigner to appear before immigration authorities

Receive and present complaints and testimony

Perform migration inspection operations on routes or at temporary points different from established inspection locations

Obtain such other elements of proof as may be necessary for the application of the Act, its regulation, and additional administrative provisions

Lastly, “the authorities of the country, whether federal, local, or municipal, and the notaries public and commercial brokers are required to request that the foreigners whom they deal with prove their legal presence in the country” and illegal immigrants who wish to get married to Mexican citizens “must request authorization from the Secretariat of the Interior.”

If Mexicans (who, by estimates, are the majority of illegal immigrants in the United States) find these laws so objectionable, why don’t they protest them in their own country?

Quite simply, what’s good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander. Mexico and the race-baiting excusers of illegal aliens want it both ways, with Mexico able to protect itself from illegal entry but force the United States to deal with the massive influx of the economically disposesed from within its own borders.

Let me make it clear for all the liberals out there: I don’t care if somebody is Mexican or Chinese or German or Irish or Turkish or from the Planet Vulcan. If they’re in this country illegally, then I want them sent back to wherever they came from. There is a process for people to enter the United States legally and until someone respects the laws that govern that process, they have no business coming here and telling us how we should treat them when they get caught.

Of course, I have no problems with legal immigration. I have many friends and co-workers who emigrated to the United States legally, spending their time and money to do so. Santana emigrated legally. He can say whatever he wants, but he’s still wrong. It’s not racism, but the short-circuiting of the legal immigration system that has me, and many like me, so upset.